ATAR Notes: Forum

National Education => Admissions tests => Selective Schools Admissions Tests => Topic started by: starjasmine on January 30, 2021, 08:52:25 pm

Title: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: starjasmine on January 30, 2021, 08:52:25 pm
Hiiii,
So, I'm preparing for the selective school test and trying to enter into 2022.
I was wondering what tuitions I should go to.
A lot of people are saying you don't even need tuitions and others are recommending JAC, Hendersons or Edu Kingdom.
Would anyone who has done the test be able to recommend some tuitions?
I'm thinking of going to Hendersons but it's really expensive and I don't want my parents to spend all that money when I may not even get in. Also, I do have some of the Hendersons material from my older sibling who went when they were younger. The material is quite good. Is Henderson's worth going to if you already have the material?
Would really appreciate any help!!
Please share your thoughts and experiences :)
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: sippingtea on January 31, 2021, 11:30:32 am
Hiiii,
So, im preparing for the selective schools test and trying for entry into 2022.
I was wondering what tuitions i should go to.
A lot of people are saying you don't even need tuitions and others are recommending JAC, Hendersons or Edu Kingdom.
Would anyone who has done the test be able to recommend some tuitons?
I'm thinking of going to Hendersons but it's like so friggin expensive and i don't want my parents to spend all that money when i may not even get in. Also, i do have some of the Hendersons material from my older sibling who went when they were younger. The material is quite good. Is Hendersons worth going to if you already have the material?
Would really appreciate any help!!
Please share your throughts and experiencessss x
hellooo! i took the entrance test in 2019 and received an offer to nossal so i think my opinion could be valid o.o
i took tutoring at spectrum tuition  and left after 2 months then proceeded tutoring with the VIE selective entry course.

from my personal experience, i’d say the VIE course was very insightful.
- they taught about time management, using logic to quickly estimate, the types of questions on the exam and how to prepare for each segment of the exam. there was a 10q quiz for every subject (except writing of course) every lesson and there are of course workbooks with questions that are very similar to the exam, the course is very content hevay and requires you to complete A LOT of homework but it was very useful depending on how you handle it. unfortunately the math material was a lot easier than the actual exam because for some reason the examiners decided to make the math exam 10x harder than what it was the previous year so i kind of bombed the math exam LOL.
im not sure if you know about how VIE tuition works but basically you would have to take an entrance exam to see how high your academic level is to be able to even get tutored there, the exam is usually in April and you can apply online. basically the higher your academic level is the less expensive it would be xD. so for example, you take the exam for VIE and get higher than a 60% average on your exam, you would then get categorised in group A, the tuition fee is $700 for all groups but if you don’t get an offer and you’re in group A they give you all your money back! (group B would get 50% of their money back and group C would get 33%). sorry I couldn’t be much help to you asking if you should go to hendersons, but personally this course really helped me out.
edit: the course is called ICP i forgot to mention that whoops

Overall, if you’re a self driven and independent person with high motivation, i wouldn’t recommend tutoring. there are many threads on here that have the material you might need to study for the exam, it might be easier for some to study by themselves and memorise material in their own time. but overall it’s up to you. (i’m sorry if this wasn't useful haha i’m not really good with words)
good luck!
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: starjasmine on January 31, 2021, 09:26:00 pm
hellooo! i took the entrance test in 2019 and received an offer to nossal so i think my opinion could be valid o.o
i took tutoring at spectrum tuition  and left after 2 months then proceeded tutoring with the VIE selective entry course.

Woahhh congratulations!! That's amazing!

from my personal experience, i’d say the VIE course was very insightful.
- they taught about time management, using logic to quickly estimate, the types of questions on the exam and how to prepare for each segment of the exam. there was a 10q quiz for every subject (except writing of course) every lesson and there are of course workbooks with questions that are very similar to the exam, the course is very content hevay and requires you to complete A LOT of homework but it was very useful depending on how you handle it. unfortunately the math material was a lot easier than the actual exam because for some reason the examiners decided to make the math exam 10x harder than what it was the previous year so i kind of bombed the math exam LOL.
im not sure if you know about how VIE tuition works but basically you would have to take an entrance exam to see how high your academic level is to be able to even get tutored there, the exam is usually in April and you can apply online. basically the higher your academic level is the less expensive it would be xD. so for example, you take the exam for VIE and get higher than a 60% average on your exam, you would then get categorised in group A, the tuition fee is $700 for all groups but if you don’t get an offer and you’re in group A they give you all your money back! (group B would get 50% of their money back and group C would get 33%). sorry I couldn’t be much help to you asking if you should go to hendersons, but personally this course really helped me out.
edit: the course is called ICP i forgot to mention that whoops

Ohhhh cool, I'll definitely consider spectrum, it sounds really helpful!
I used some of their like online resources and stuff nskjdnskj
but i've also heard of it from friends and family, and they said it was quite good too.
Im kinda behind on maths and stuff but my english is quite good.
About the homework, how did you juggle like school work with test prep?


Overall, if you’re a self driven and independent person with high motivation, i wouldn’t recommend tutoring. there are many threads on here that have the material you might need to study for the exam, it might be easier for some to study by themselves and memorise material in their own time. but overall it’s up to you. (i’m sorry if this wasn't useful haha i’m not really good with words)
good luck!

Yess i've seen really helpful stuff on here which i will definitely use
I feel like personally i might need a tuition so they can train me for the test by giving me practice tests, tips and questions and stuff but yea
Thank you so so much for this!! It was really helpful:)

Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: ThunderDragon on February 01, 2021, 11:55:06 am
I personally did James An College and found that to be alright. Had a few teacher changes which was slightly annoying but we got through the content and had weekly practice tests which I found to be pretty good. If you are near Point Cook or the westside, you could check out Integral Tuition which has a selective school exam program.
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: sippingtea on February 01, 2021, 07:33:05 pm
Woahhh congratulations!! That's amazing!

Ohhhh cool, I'll definitely consider spectrum, it sounds really helpful!
I used some of their like online resources and stuff nskjdnskj
but i've also heard of it from friends and family, and they said it was quite good too.
Im kinda behind on maths and stuff but my english is quite good.
About the homework, how did you juggle like school work with test prep?

Yess i've seen really helpful stuff on here which i will definitely use
I feel like personally i might need a tuition so they can train me for the test by giving me practice tests, tips and questions and stuff but yea
Thank you so so much for this!! It was really helpful:)
hi again!
regarding your question about how i juggled the workload, if i’m being completely honest, i didn’t really care for school work because i had the (unhealthy) mindset of if i were to get in to a selective school, my current grades wouldn’t really matter. but i will say, i was indeed a “straight A” student in school and the workload wasn’t entirely heavy when i was in year 8. on days i would have homework or assignments from school, i would prioritise it and set aside my test prep until i was finished with it, but we rarely had any homework and assignments could be done in a short amount of time and were fairly easy to complete. as of right now, i’m studying for the ebs entrance exam and i try to set aside at least 2 hours for test prep along with at least half an hour to revise notes and content that I don’t quite understand as the workload is a lot heavier going into year 10.
long story short (I apologise for my wordy answers) if you have homework or assignments to complete, always do them early (the day or week you get them handed to you) and get them out of the way, DO NOT prioritise test prep over school work and vice-versa.
apologies again for the wordy answer, hope this helped!
ps. i suck at math too, i’m wayyyy better at english but be sure to have a strong math foundation, it can really bring your score up as the math exam is prettyyy hard to ace
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: starjasmine on February 01, 2021, 08:19:51 pm
I personally did James An College and found that to be alright. Had a few teacher changes which was slightly annoying but we got through the content and had weekly practice tests which I found to be pretty good. If you are near Point Cook or the westside, you could check out Integral Tuition which has a selective school exam program.

Oh cool, nah i don't live near point cook but i'm definitely gonna try out James An
Apparently they just spam you with tests lmao
I've heard it's more helpful for practice and stuff.
But anyways thankss!
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: starjasmine on February 01, 2021, 08:31:48 pm
hi again!
regarding your question about how i juggled the workload, if i’m being completely honest, i didn’t really care for school work because i had the (unhealthy) mindset of if i were to get in to a selective school, my current grades wouldn’t really matter. but i will say, i was indeed a “straight A” student in school and the workload wasn’t entirely heavy when i was in year 8. on days i would have homework or assignments from school, i would prioritise it and set aside my test prep until i was finished with it, but we rarely had any homework and assignments could be done in a short amount of time and were fairly easy to complete. as of right now, i’m studying for the ebs entrance exam and i try to set aside at least 2 hours for test prep along with at least half an hour to revise notes and content that I don’t quite understand as the workload is a lot heavier going into year 10.
long story short (I apologise for my wordy answers) if you have homework or assignments to complete, always do them early (the day or week you get them handed to you) and get them out of the way, DO NOT prioritise test prep over school work and vice-versa.
apologies again for the wordy answer, hope this helped!
ps. i suck at math too, i’m wayyyy better at english but be sure to have a strong math foundation, it can really bring your score up as the math exam is prettyyy hard to ace

Yess woahh tyty
I feel like my school just give a lotta hw in general smh
But yeaa, i was thinking of doing that, school for like an hour-ish and then test prep
Also, i didn't really want to spend much time on school work but i think if you get principal's discretion you might have to show your reports- im not entirely sure but yea
Also thankss for all the help!
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: Meg210706 on February 13, 2021, 08:34:49 am
Heyy so I sat the test last year and I got into Macrob.
So I changed tutors quite a lot until I found someone who was suitable for me. I started off with James An, though the practice tests were really good I honestly wasn’t learning anything since the teacher wouldn’t really answer my questions properly and I decided I didn’t like it so I quit.

A family friend of mine who did the selective test a few years ago sent his Henderson’s material to me and honestly those papers were really worth it they went through every topic I needed to know for the test and even had practice questions.

Online practice tests in my opinion are not worth the money they are wayyyy easier than the actual test and if I spent more time on those then I probably wouldn’t have passed the test at all.

In the end I got recommended to go to a tutoring centre called SMART Tutoring and in my opinion the tutor was the best I’ve been to in years. It was a small class of about 5 people and we went through each and every topic in depth making sure we understood all about the question and also did lots of practice tests which were actually pretty similar to the selective test though of course a little easier. I also bought a year 10 maths book and studied for maybe 30 mins to an hour at home due to COVID 19 I had an extra 5 months to prepare and I did low key waste time but I mean yolo ig :)

Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: Cute bunny 11 on February 13, 2021, 11:15:46 am
hi again!
regarding your question about how i juggled the workload, if i’m being completely honest, i didn’t really care for school work because i had the (unhealthy) mindset of if i were to get in to a selective school, my current grades wouldn’t really matter. but i will say, i was indeed a “straight A” student in school and the workload wasn’t entirely heavy when i was in year 8. on days i would have homework or assignments from school, i would prioritise it and set aside my test prep until i was finished with it, but we rarely had any homework and assignments could be done in a short amount of time and were fairly easy to complete. as of right now, i’m studying for the ebs entrance exam and i try to set aside at least 2 hours for test prep along with at least half an hour to revise notes and content that I don’t quite understand as the workload is a lot heavier going into year 10.
long story short (I apologise for my wordy answers) if you have homework or assignments to complete, always do them early (the day or week you get them handed to you) and get them out of the way, DO NOT prioritise test prep over school work and vice-versa.
apologies again for the wordy answer, hope this helped!
ps. i suck at math too, i’m wayyyy better at english but be sure to have a strong math foundation, it can really bring your score up as the math exam is prettyyy hard to ace


heyy! im planning on doing the ebs and jmss yr 11 test and i just wanted to know if you go to a tutor? because form what ive heard, its hard to apply the content that youve learnt into the actual exam questions
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: starjasmine on February 13, 2021, 07:38:40 pm
Heyy so I sat the test last year and I got into Macrob.
So I changed tutors quite a lot until I found someone who was suitable for me. I started off with James An, though the practice tests were really good I honestly wasn’t learning anything since the teacher wouldn’t really answer my questions properly and I decided I didn’t like it so I quit.

A family friend of mine who did the selective test a few years ago sent his Henderson’s material to me and honestly those papers were really worth it they went through every topic I needed to know for the test and even had practice questions.

Online practice tests in my opinion are not worth the money they are wayyyy easier than the actual test and if I spent more time on those then I probably wouldn’t have passed the test at all.

In the end I got recommended to go to a tutoring centre called SMART Tutoring and in my opinion the tutor was the best I’ve been to in years. It was a small class of about 5 people and we went through each and every topic in depth making sure we understood all about the question and also did lots of practice tests which were actually pretty similar to the selective test though of course a little easier. I also bought a year 10 maths book and studied for maybe 30 mins to an hour at home due to COVID 19 I had an extra 5 months to prepare and I did low key waste time but I mean yolo ig :)

Woahh tysmm!!
Yeaaa i heard JAC isn't very helpful for learning stuff
Also, sorry what did you mean by online practice tests?
I heard the maths was really hard last year
Dangg year 10 maths? I'm sorta working from Hendersons material which i also got from a friend haha and also a year 9 textbook.
I kinda wish we have an extention lmaoo coz then we will have time to prep but i've heard you can lose motivation so-

Anyways, tyty :)
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: Meg210706 on February 14, 2021, 11:57:49 am
Woahh tysmm!!
Yeaaa i heard JAC isn't very helpful for learning stuff
Also, sorry what did you mean by online practice tests?
I heard the maths was really hard last year
Dangg year 10 maths? I'm sorta working from Hendersons material which i also got from a friend haha and also a year 9 textbook.
I kinda wish we have an extention lmaoo coz then we will have time to prep but i've heard you can lose motivation so-

Anyways, tyty :)

Hey so by online tests I meant the ones on the education Victoria website and there was a tutoring center called Spectrum that sold practice tests my friend bought them and shared it with me and honestly they were just way too easy so If I were u I wouldn't buy any online tests.
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: qaium on July 10, 2021, 08:25:33 pm
Guy! Any views about Integral Tuition? How do they teach? Any selective student who has taken the tutoring, can discuss their experience?
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: qaium on July 10, 2021, 08:41:45 pm
Any one here, have taken Victoria selective exam preparation coaching with scholarly training. if Yes, how  is their quality of teaching and results?
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: CorkedBoard on July 11, 2021, 10:02:04 am
If you live in the western area, I would definitely have to recommend Spectrum Tuition. They have a ‘mock exam’ program which was extremely helpful, and everyone but one person got accepted into Suzanne Cory for 2018.
So, I would definitely recommend Spectrum in this regards.
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: HUA0007 on July 28, 2021, 11:03:14 am
I like Spectrum tuition because they have a well made Youtube channel.
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: ThunderDragon on July 28, 2021, 03:27:45 pm
James An is an ok option I guess. Got me into MHS though the program more so got me into the mindset of studying hard. I Heard Henderson's is pretty good but it's very expensive apparently.
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: Aligator1000 on August 19, 2021, 06:45:20 pm
hi can someone tell me what books you should read to help prepare for the selective entry 2022 test
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: procrastinator101 on August 19, 2021, 07:57:30 pm
Hiiii,
So, im preparing for the selective schools test and trying for entry into 2022.
I was wondering what tuitions i should go to.
A lot of people are saying you don't even need tuitions and others are recommending JAC, Hendersons or Edu Kingdom.
Would anyone who has done the test be able to recommend some tuitons?
I'm thinking of going to Hendersons but it's like really expensive and i don't want my parents to spend all that money when i may not even get in. Also, i do have some of the Hendersons material from my older sibling who went when they were younger. The material is quite good. Is Hendersons worth going to if you already have the material?
Would really appreciate any help!!
Please share your throughts and experiencessss x

hii! so i went to James Ann Epping last year, i didn't get into a selective school but most of my classmates did! I guess in JAC it all really depends on how much you are motivated, because if not, it's kinda just extra work laying on the side. But the tests and workbooks JAC give you are pretty good and i had a really good Maths teacher last year, but i think he teaches at Craigieburn now. Also they do really good revision lessons and your results are documented so you know what to improve on! The teachers i had at JAC helped me with certain topics i didn't know much about, I'm not sure about other centers tho.  I also know a few people who went to Edu kingdom and got into MHS and Macrob. But i've never experienced going there. Tried Spectrum too and it was a great experience but i stopped going because the times of their classes weren't working for me. Online tests are also way easier compared to the real test so i would recommend not buying them. Good Luck !
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: procrastinator101 on August 19, 2021, 08:04:23 pm
hi can someone tell me what books you should read to help prepare for the selective entry 2022 test

I remember reading somewhere that to extend your vocab you should read the Harry Potter series, the Divergent series, and the Percy Jackson series. These are just for Verbal Reasoning though i think. Also i'm sure these will help with creative writing but not sure if you guys have writing this year?
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: JZou276 on August 19, 2021, 08:10:30 pm
hi can someone tell me what books you should read to help prepare for the selective entry 2022 test
tbh at this time, i think it's quite late to start reading books for the vocab considering the test will be in one or two months. I think what you should do is study root words. I know it's a pain but it makes it quite easy to understand harder words better instead of not knowing them at all in the exam.

If you don't want to do that you can use vocabulary.com. If you are currently doing a tuition write down every word you don't know in your test and review them.
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: rchau on October 25, 2021, 03:01:28 am
I am wondering if some could could help me with some study material from Hendersons to practice for selective school exams. Really appreciate.
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: somebody8442 on October 25, 2021, 02:20:00 pm
I am wondering if some could could help me with some study material from Hendersons to practice for selective school exams. Really appreciate.

As in, do you need material? Or do you have the material but need help? If you need it, then I guess you'll have to buy it, but if you need help, you're more than welcome to ask  :D.
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: starjasmine on December 25, 2021, 01:51:05 am
Hello!
I created this post earlier this year during my preparation for the selective exam.
I ended up getting into Macrob and thought I might share what tuitions I attended and some tips for anybody doing the test in the future :)
I began by doing Henderson's workshop material which I had from my elder sibling. The Hendersons maths was not really worth it in my opinion as I had to learn a lot of extra content. The Numerical was pretty good as it had quite a lot of practice questions.
I also ended up doing quite a lot of practice tests from Hendersons- the math and numerical were not very accurate to what was in the final exam but the verbal and reading comp tests were pretty accurate and were great practice.
I then joined JAC and attended for a few months. The JAC maths was pretty good and similar to the final exam although the tests were pretty difficult. For NR, just like maths, pretty similar to the real deal. I will say though, their verbal is pretty easy and their reading comp is similar to Hendersons.
Other than this, I was privately tutored and did lots of math practice from a year 9 textbook. I would recommend checking out Jayce's selective exam guide as it helped me make sure I knew everything I needed to before going to the exam.
But yeah that's pretty much it and I hope this helped :))
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: 102939234 on April 11, 2022, 04:18:38 pm
WOAH GOOD JOB   :D
Title: Re: What Tuitions Are Good For the Selective Entry Test?
Post by: Marin Kitagawa on April 18, 2022, 10:24:44 pm
yeah they are pretty decent